"Hey you! Hand over your money!" A man with a dagger shouted at her. 

Once again, Attie had gotten herself lost and ended up in an alleyway with a thief. This was the second time she had somebody trying to rob her. The first time she was busy so there wasn't any time to ask the thief any questions. However, this time she had nothing planned that day. And here was a thief! The man was a half-fling and had many muscles along with scars. Even somebody who was taller would have felt threatened by his appearance. Yet Attie didn't seem bothered at all. If anything, she looked at the stranger with a strange sort of fascination. 

"Oh hi!" She said with a friendly attitude, "I'll hand over some stuff if you'd be willing to answer some of my questions. First, I'd like to know why you decided to be a thief. Is it a profession you specifically wanted? Do you live here in town or are you from out of town? What is life like as a thief? Is it difficult to find people to steal from or is it common for people to go into dark alleyways? What's your life like?"

"For heavens sake! Just hand over your money!" The half-ling growled. 

"Do you enjoy taking money from others?" Attie asked curiously, oblivious of the man's increasing anger. 

"No! It's just complicated. So give-"

"So its complicated? How so?" Attie pushed. 

In her hands was her journal and a quill that she had pulled out of her satchel. She was writing all of his responses down, word by word. Attie even made a sketch of the man, though it looked more like a child's drawing. 

"I don't know. It's just difficult." The man said in frustration.

"Life has stolen from you. So you will steal from life." Attie said, quoting something else written down in her journal. 

"What? I mean…yeah that's about it. I guess." The thief said, "Life isn't fair. People aren't fair. So why should I be fair?"

"Lets sit and talk some more." Attie said, sitting on the ground and motioning him to sit next to her. 

The man let out a tired sigh, shrugged his shoulders then sat next to the girl. He began to explain his situation to her. How his wife left, taking the kids with her. His job had just fired him because of the amount of times he had shown up to work drunk. Attie listened intently to the man while writing everything down. The thief had forgotten all about his stealing and was caught up in the swirl of emotions as he talked. He explained how he felt angry, sad, frustrated, and how he wanted revenge on the world that he felt neglected him. The lack of money and his anger led him to become a thief. He admitted that he once killed a man for not giving him his money and it scared him. The thief from then on, behaved as a rough thug. It felt nice to feel strong. But he still felt that anger and pushed off his other emotions with alcohol. Attie never said anything judgmental. Instead she just asked questions and listened intently. As time passed, the thief began to realize that he needed to leave. 

"Well. I'd better get going." The thief said awkwardly as he stood up, "Um. Thanks. For listening. Yeah. I'm gonna go now." 

"Thanks for talking to me!" Attie said standing up, "I'm glad to have a new perspective on things and it'll really help me in the future." 

The man had a look of pure shock on his face. He had threatened her, almost stabbed her, and he burdened her with all of his troubles like the idiot he was. And yet, here she was, thanking him. 

"Yeah. Whatever." He said, looking away in embarrassment. 

Then the thief ran off. He didn't turn around or look back and vanished into the crowd. Attie packed up her journal and quill then proceeded to leave the dark alleyway. There was a smile on her face and she seemed happy with how things turned out. But she was mostly happy about the information that she had gathered. People's life stories were rare to hear since few were comfortable with talking to a stranger about it. However, she figured out if she could ask the right questions and say the right things, then she would be able to hear it. She started to walk into town, looking around at all the shops and buildings that surrounded her. She wanted to learn something new. Attie was keeping her eyes and ears out for something to learn about. 

”Thank you.” Bianca spoke as they accepted the confections from the shop owner, they had been feeling like something sweet for a while and now was as good a time as any.

”Thank you for your patronage, sir.” Said the baker with a smile.

But his wife spoke up quickly. ”Get your eyes checked, Harold!” She snapped and looked to Bianca with an apologetic look. ”I’m sorry, ma’am, my husbands eyes aren’t what they used to be, but he can still bake with the best of them!”

Bianca smiled a bit. ”It is ok, I am used to it. In truth you’re both correct, long story short I am both and neither male or female. Again, thank you for the sugar cake.” Bianca explained and headed for the door, having to duck a bit to get out.

Bianca walked back outside again from the little bakery as they took a bite of the sugary cake looking around the marketplace for a moment. Their lover, Illiana, was around somewhere doing her own shopping, but for the moment Bianca was alone.

They had come to the city to explore and pick up some supplies, and in general look around the city of the Halflings. Bianca stood at about five and a half feet tall with dark reddish skin, fire orange eyes that glowed with her inner fire even in the daylight, more noticeable when they were in a shadow of a building. Their hair was blood red, one half worn long just past their shoulders the other half done up in cornrows to the back of their skull. A striking look indeed, Bianca certainly stood out among the Halflings, but since being in the city Bianca hadn’t caused any trouble so the locals had left them alone.

However as Bianca started to make their way towards a stall with some interesting baubles on it, she felt something at their hip move. Glancing down quickly Bianca saw that the Goddess Cube they used a purse/bag was gone and snapped their attention back to the crowd to see a Halfling running away. Eyes narrowing Bianca’s form flashed out of sight with a whoosh of fire, causing some shocked gasps from those around them.

Bianca appeared again with another whoosh of fire in the path of the thief and the halfling thief skidded to a halt as his path was blocked. ”Hand that over, now, because if I have to set down my cake to take it back, well, I guess we’ll find out what burnt halfling smells like. You have three seconds.” Bianca warned holding their free hand out to get the cube back from the thief who seemed to be questioning their choice at the moment. Bianca’s fiery eyes narrowed to slits. ”One… Two…”

As she was going down the street, she spotted a woman and the thief and some fire. It didn't take her long to figure out that the thief had stolen the cube thing that he was holding. It seemed that he was going to have a difficult choice. Give up the cube or get burnt. Deciding that she wanted to help out a bit, she morphed into a hawk. Her body changed and began smaller. Her arms transformed into wings and her legs into claws.

In a matter of moments, she was a beautiful golden hawk. Flapping her wings, she soared into the air and flew straight towards the halfling. Her claws expanded and she snatched the cube up in her claws. Instead of flying away, she flew towards Bianca and dropped the cube into her hands. Landing on the ground, the beautiful golden hawk began to grow and morph into a human. The woman had short black hair and was sitting on the ground, looking at the thief.

"Just because I listened doesn't mean that you can go on stealing." She said pushing herself to her feet, "Now if you want to improve yourself, I would recommend starting with your alcohol problem. It seems to be the source of all of your issues. Then get yourself to a healer who can help you. Stealing clearly won't get you anywhere so why should you continue it? "

The thief had a face of red and began shouting profanities before running off into the crowd. Attie let out a small disappointed sigh before turning to Bianca. It was difficult to tell whether the person was male or female. However, instead of confusing her, this only made Attie even more fascinated. She gave the woman a wave then walked up to her to shake hands. 

"Hi!" She said enthusiastically, "I'm Attie. What's your name? What was the cube thingy that guy tried to steal? Is it important? How are you today? What's up with the cake? OH! Is it somebody's birthday? Is it your birthday?" 

Her questions began to run out of her mouth quickly. She seemed a lot like an excited puppy that was just happy to be talking to somebody. 

Bianca was about ready to cremate the halfling when the hawk dropped out of the air and snapped the box from his grasp. Next thing Bianca knew her cube was dropped back into her hand again from the hawk as it landed in morphed into a young human woman with short black hair. She spoke as she stood up, speaking to the halfling thief as if they knew each other. So he had trouble with alcohol, that would explain a few things. Bianca watched as the halfling took off into the crowd while he swore until the air around him was blue.

Their attention was turned, however, back to the young woman who had been a hawk as she came over running off a slew of questions while holding out her hand. Bianca blinked before grinning, already she liked this young woman, she was curious, perhaps to a fault, and seemed genuine. Bianca clipped the cube back onto their belt before reaching out to shake Attie’s offered hand, Bianca’s own would feel unusually warm for someone who looked, well, closer to human than some anyway. ”A pleasure, Attie, and I must thank you for retrieving my cube.” Bianca nodded their head to show their thanks at the same time before taking their hand back. ”You can call me Bianca. As for the cube, well, it’s important to me at least since it holds most of my possessions in it. It’s called a Goddess Cube, it can any number of things, so it’s rather handy to have, it’s much lighter than something like a backpack.” They explained.

”The though, I was just hungry and wanted something sweet to eat.” They grinned. ”Now, if I may turn the questions around for a moment. Your little trick there, changing into a hawk, is that something you have always been able to do? Or is that something you learned to do through study and practice?” As Attie answered Bianca quickly finished off the bit of sugar cake they had left.

Attie shook the stranger's hand and noticed that their hand was warmer than most people's. The young girl assumed that this was due to the fire magic that Bianca had just used. As Bianca went on to describe the cube, Attie reached into her satchel to grab her journal and a quill. Quickly, she began writing down as much as possible about this cube and made a quick sketch of it. Once she was done, she closed her journal shut and placed it in her satchel. Soon Bianca had began asking Attie the questions, to which she was more than happy to oblige. 

"Well…It's been more of a recent thing." Attie explained, "At first it was just my arm that transformed into a wing. Then I learned how to transform my entire body into the hawk. I can't transform into other birds for some reason. But I guess I have plenty time to figure that all out." 

Attie's hand had reached up to her blue amulet and was fiddling with it nervously. She hadn't figured out much about the transformations or what they meant. All that she knew was that they were happening. A bear, a hawk, and a horse. There didn't seem to be many connections between these three animals and yet those were the only ones she was able to transform into so far. Attie suddenly felt a surge of sadness running through her mind. Instead of focusing on it, she pushed a smile on her face and pointed to a small fountain that had a bench in front of it. 

"There's a place to sit and eat if you need it." Attie said with a cheery exterior, "And this town has a lot of cool things in it. Have you been here before?"

As Bianca explained their cube they watched as Attie pulled out the journal and started to scribble in it, presumably she wrote down the details on what the cube was. Bianca had to admit to some curiosity in this girl now, she could see someone that wanted to learn of the world around her. Bianca listened as Attie explained her ability to change forms, ah, so she was new to that power, well she was young so that could have something to do with it. ”Hm, well, perhaps in time and with practice you’ll be able to change in other birds and perhaps other animals as well.” Bianca replied.

Bianca thought a moment and nodded. ”Sure, we can sit and chat and have a bite if you like. My lover is around here somewhere, she won’t be long I don’t think and my shopping is done.” Bianca replied and headed in the direction of a place to sit and get something to eat. ”I have been here before actually, though it has been sometime between visits.” In truth, this version of Bianca hadn’t been here before, but it was the human woman who had been named Bianca who had, who this version of Bianca still had memories from. So, it wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the full truth either, but that truth was rather complicated. ”So, Attie, are you studying to become a scholar of some kind?” Bianca asked nodding towards where Attie had placed her book away.

"Sort of." Attie responded as she sat down on the bench, "I'm gathering information but more for the purpose of learning. I've realized that there is thousands of pieces of information that lay scattered across the land. Things that most don't consider important. For example, most don't care about how a fisherman in Parvpora catches his fish. But one day, the fishermen might be gone. Then who will remember them? Who will remember their stories or their fishing tactics? What if those fishermen knew something that we didn't? That's why I'm travelling. I'm going around gathering all the information that I can. Information that isn't well known to the rest of the world or that scholars don't bother with. I'm gathering people's personal stories, traditions, values, knowledge, and putting it all inside my journals. That way when I eventually pass on, they can be sent to libraries or made copies of."

Her words were laced with an infectious enthusiasm as she discussed her plans. It was clear that she placed value on every experience and every scrap of knowledge. In her point of view, nothing was useless. She would never view herself as a scholar, since most scholars spent their times up in their libraries, never learning from the world around them. If anything, Attie viewed herself as a writer. A person who documented people from reality. A person who would write down information and hopefully spread it to the rest of Revaliir. That was her true goal. That was what she really wanted to do.

Eventually, the girl stopped talking and allowed herself to breath. She had gotten wrapped up in her description and hadn't considered the possibility that Bianca might be bored by her. Attie had assumed they would share the same enthusiasm and only remembered that not everybody had that burning desire for knowledge that she held. Looking slightly sheepish, Attie decided to change the subject back to Bianca. 

"So what about you? What do you do?" She asked curiously. 

Bianca was just fascinated with Attie now as she explained more of her current and future plans. Bianca sat back on the bench as Attie spoke and just listened until Attie was finished, they liked Attie even more now. Such enthusiasm for taking the stories of peoples’ lives down for telling by later generations when those stories would have most likely been forgotten, it was infectious. However, when Attie asked what it was that Bianca did, the blood mage looked thoughtful for a few silent moments as they contemplated something.

After that time Bianca spoke, her voice low so that it was only Attie that could hear them. ”What I do changes day by day, the most consistent thing is that I am with my lover, Illiana.” Bianca explained. ”But, what I can tell you is a story that very, very few know about, but it’s not a story for the faint of heart… or weak of stomach.” They warned and then continued, if Attie was going to write down the stories like she said she it was inevitable that she’d find some like Bianca’s. ”There was once a noble woman from the city of Jayou, her last name was Bathory, who had riches to last any normal being three lifetimes and then some. Fortunes raised from past generations of family dealings both legal and very much illegal and immoral, but, fortunes nonetheless. She of course continued those dealings once she became head of the family, however, she was… unique among her family bloodline.”

”Bathory was obsessed with blood and fire, to a frankly terrifying degree, and she was a cruel woman to boot.” Bianca took a breath before they continued, now the gory details would start and they watched for Attie’s reaction. ”She herself was just a normal human, no magic to her or anything, her only power was her noble statues and her money. She was known to fall asleep nearly every night to the light of a burning fire in her room in a specially made spot as not to set the mansion on fire. But this wasn’t a normal fireplace as you might think, because, instead of wood, she used very much alive people. Enemies of her family, people who she thought slighted her at a party, or just random people her guards picked up off the streets. She’d listen to their screams until they died while laying in bed before falling asleep in the glow of the fire.” Bianca’s voice was rather neutral as they spoke, but there was an underlying tone of disgust as well. No matter how bad Bianca would act now, the being that was speaking now using the Bianca name was not the same one that they were telling the story of now.

”Bathory was also known to consume human blood that had been specially prepared for her consumption that she wouldn’t get sick from it. She started to become greedy for magical power, to wield fire and control blood with her own magical power, but, as I said, she had no magic of her own.” Bianca took another breath, now for the twist in all this. ”Through her research, as grotesque as it was, she learned that there was a chance she could infuse her body with a fire elemental and a blood elemental. Doing so, in theory, would give her both fire and blood magic. However, once she found this out she rushed to do the ritual without properly preparing for it.”

Bianca turned their glowing, fire orange eyes back to Attie’s with their voice becoming a bit more serious, but still in a hushed tone so that Attie could only hear what was being said. ”Bathory started the ritual with much excitement, anticipation and no patients. The results worked, but not in the way that Bathory had expected. The fire and blood elementals she conjured that day did in fact fuse with her body, but what also happened was all three individual personalities melded together as well, with the elementals being stronger. They hadn’t been willing participants in the ritual, having been dragged from their respective planes, so between then they tore apart Bathory’s original personality and used their own combined to make a new one and take over the body.”

Bianca brought their hands up just to their knees and opened their palms upwards. In their left hand was a floating ball of fire, in their right was a slowly spinning orb of blood from a small cut on her palm she had done while speaking. ”Bathory’s first name was Bianca, a name I still use for convenience more than anything. You see, Attie, I am, or was, Bianca Bathory, I am the result of that sadistic ritual.” Bianca confessed as they snuffed the little fire ball out and forced the blood back into the cut before it closed again. ”The woman that was Bianca is no more, and I am a being one mind but of no fixed look or gender. The elementals were each of different gender, for what it’s worth in an elemental with no fixed physical form, so to it seems that that trait has taken over this body.” Bianca looked back to Attie again. ”There, now you have another story for your journals, one that is only known to me, Illiana, and now you. There were a few of Bianca’s people that knew what happened, but, well, let’s just say my first few days like this were busy removing from lose ends.” Now she waited to see what Attie’s reaction would be.

Attie quickly brought out her journal when she realized that Bianca was about to tell their story. Bianca mentioned that the story wasn't for the faint of heart but it was clear that she didn't care. Soon, they began to tell their story. Attie never interrupted and was careful to nod at the appropriate times. Her face was warm and friendly but had a sympathetic look. Every word that came from Bianca's mouth was important to her. Every part of the story, even the parts that Bianca might not like, was essential. The gory parts didn't seem to bother Attie at all, but she didn't smile and kept a neutral face during that part. She listened intently, writing every aspect of the story down inter her journal. Towards the end of Bianca's story, they had a floating ball of fire in their left hand and a spinning orb of blood in their right. At this point, Attie had guessed that Bianca was born from this Bathory noble. Soon the story was over and Attie had finished writing in her journal. She placed down the book and reached over to Bianca's hands, gently holding them. 

"Thank you for telling me the story of your birth." Attie said with a soft smile, "I know it is probably a hard thing to talk about."

Right away, Attie did not consider Bianca and Bathory the same person. Instead, she felt that Bianca was born from Bathory's actions and nothing more. This person seemed to be very kind and understanding, so therefore, they were not Bathory. From their story it was clear that the cruel noble was no more. If anything, this made Bianca seem like a very strong person since there were few people in the world who would be able to handle information like that. Attie let go of Bianca's hands and placed her journal back in her satchel before looking back to her new friend. 

"Do you think that there might be any family members who are looking for Bathory?" Attie asked curiously, "It wouldn't be good if they found out what happen. "

Since Bathory came from a noble family who held a lot of power, those family members would probably be angry if they found out what had happened. Those family members might target Bianca, even though they had nothing to do with Bathory. The only thing that Bianca and Bathory seemed to share was the leftovers of the human body. Otherwise, Bathory was gone and that family would most likely dislike that. 

"Also are we…friends?" Attie asked with a hopeful expression. 

Of all the things in the world, friendship was one of the most important things. After hearing Bianca's story and the past that they were strong enough to deal with, Attie was eager to befriend such a strong and determined person. 

As Bianca spoke they just watched with a small grin as Attie wrote everything down that was being said. When Attie did speak again after Bianca was finished the blood mage only shrugged. ”No, not really, I’m just careful who I tell it to is all. And you’re welcome, Attie.” Bianca smiled, but little did Attie know that while the original and very cruel noble was done, the Bianca before her was still more than capable of cruelty. More so when Bianca and Illiana were together as Illiana could easily fuel Bianca’s bloodlust with her own.

When Attie mentioned possible family looking for the fate of Bianca, Bianca thought a moment. ”I honestly don’t know, it has been years now and I haven’t had anyone confront me. Then again I don’t look as much like she did either, so it’s possible they don’t know it’s me if they are looking.” Bianca shrugged again. ”If it comes to that I’ll see what they have to say, if they only want to know what happened and leave me alone otherwise I’ll tell them. But if they think they are going to try and change things and bring her back, well, they’ll have to deal with me, Illiana and her clan.” Bianca thought a moment, impressed that Attie hadn’t seemed repulsed or upset by anything that had been told to her so far, Bianca decided to see if one more thing might make the younger woman flinch. ”Illiana’s clan, I am teaching them blood magic. They are already versed in fire, but having skills in blood magic will give them that unexpected edge against their enemies, well, our enemies now. Not sure if you have ever heard of how blood magic taught, but it can get… messy.”

When Attie asked if they were friends, Bianca couldn’t keep the smile off of their face. ”Yes, Attie, we are friends.” Bianca chuckled as a thought crossed their mind. ”Attie, would you be interested in seeing the mansion where I came from? There might be things there that are useful to you, but useless for me. I have been back only once since I first left there, a couple of months after I met Illiana, I took her with me. That was some time ago, I’m curious to see if anything has happened to it since.” Bianca offered.